“Donald Trump launched the Miss USA pageant, which is great for Republicans, because it’ll streamline their search for a vice president,” Meyers said.

Trump, the potential Republican presidential candidate, was in the audience Saturday, but the GOP's 2008 vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin who was a beauty queen in her younger days, was not. Her daughter Bristol was seated in the front row, and laughed.

Former Gov. Palin was in town for the weekend, attending a big charity brunch earlier on Saturday with husband Todd and their daughter.

Meyers also scored laughs teasing Obama about how the president’s looks have changed after two years in the White House.

“When you were sworn in you looked like the guy from the Old Spice commercials,” Meyers quipped, swiveling to look at the president. “Now you look like Louis Gossett, Sr.”

Seated onstage a few feet from Meyers, Obama laughed through most of the routine.

Meyers, during his monologue at the dinner, noted the excitement around Washington's big weekend with a slight smirk. He took the chance to

"I keep hearing how everybody is excited to go to the Bloomberg party," he said. "You know how I'm not in New York? In New York, no one is excited to go to a Bloomberg party. In New York, a Bloomberg party is five people standing outside a bar smoking, complaining about Bloomberg."

Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who was in attendance, is in his third term as mayor of New York City. The eponymous company which made him a billionaire, Bloomberg News, is dramatically increasing its footprint in Washington.

The night’s most coveted invitation has traditionally been for Vanity Fair and Bloomberg’s shindig at the French Ambassadors Residence, but this year, journalists went wild about Sarah Palin’s appearance at a party hosted by left-leaning cable news network MSNBC.

The Tea Party favorite arrived -- and avowed enemy of the "lamestream media" -- close to 1 a.m. and made the rounds. She posed for photos, and enjoyed live music by Cee Lo Green.

A few feet away, newly appointed Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) also enjoyed the festivities, while MSNBC host Rachel Maddow played guest bartender for much of the party.